“Ever since iTunes first launch as a digital music store Apple has been adding more and more content to it making the application an almost one-stop shop for your digital needs,” Alan Cone reports for Newowin. “Ranging from music to videos, and even mobile applications iTunes does it all. Curiously though, when Apple released the Mac App Store, this came as a separate application.”

Cone reports, “On an Italian Apple blog, Slide To Mac, they have an image which appears to show the classic App Store logo with the words “Coming Soon” below it within iTunes. While this makes sense on the Mac side, it would lead to drastic differences between the OS X and Windows versions of iTunes.”

MacDailyNews Take: It seems minor, but having to launch the Mac App Store as a separate app means fewer visits than if it was in iTunes for Mac right by the App Store icon. We’re in iTunes all the time, but we have to remember to launch the Mac App Store.

Thank You for supporting MacDailyNews!

17 Comments

I doubt it. If that was the intent, it would have been introduced that way.

Apple intentionally made using the Mac App Store NOT dependent on having iTunes installed. The App Store for iOS being in iTunes makes sense, because iTunes handles syncing, backup, and maintenance for iOS devices.

“Apple intentionally made using the Mac App Store NOT dependent on having iTunes installed”…

ITunes is always installed on every Mac. While I believe you COULD trash it if you wanted (if you didn’t have an iPod/iPhone/iPad, nor wanted to listen to music), it is difficult to find a valid reason why.

Yes, but there should be no need to USE iTunes, just to install Mac software. And while some version of iTunes may be installed by default on every Mac, the user should not have to bother updating iTunes to the latest version, just to be able to continue using the Mac App Store.

The primary purpose of iTunes is to play media and should not be necessary to maintain the Mac’s software. What’s next, Disk Utility is going to integrated into iTunes?

But then, you would have to set up syncing in two separate applications. The reason the iOS App Store is in iTunes is because iTunes is used for syncing “everything” to the iOS device, as well as backup and general maintenance. So it would not be “all in one place” in a more important way.

AND, there would have to be a separate “non-Mac Store” application for Windows users, if the iOS App Store was no longer in iTunes.

At some future date, iOS devices will no longer be dependent on having a separate “full” computer. At that time, Apple will probably rethink the role of iTunes.

As I said, once iOS devices are no longer dependent on having a Mac or Windows PC to be the host, “Apple will probably rethink the role of iTunes.” Currently, for iPhones, iPod touch, and iPad, they are treated as dependent devices (like old-school iPods). So FOR NOW, you have to use iTunes to manage and perform the syncing of all the iTunes-based media AND even Address Book, iCal and Mail accounts, so it makes sense to also include apps (to keep it all in one place instead of two separate application – one for media and one for apps).

Once “iDevices” are no longer dependent, it would be more like having two Macs. You can keep them “in sync” in various ways, but one is not “synced to” the other (the two computers have “equal” status with respect to syncing). Apple will probably have some cloud-based method in place for syncing by that time.

you know, I thought that mac app store was supposed to be like app store inside of itunes. but I don’t understand why they made it separately. that wasn’t like what Apple has done before. inefficient. now, they will try to change, huh? what’s wrong.

Because you don’t want make something as important as installing application on your Mac dependent on iTunes. For the Mac user, iTunes is an application for acquiring and playing various types of media. They may not use it at all. Or they may use it, but may have reasons for not wanting to upgrade to the latest version every time, just to keep using the Mac App Store. Conversely, if Apple has a need to update how the Mac App Store works, they should not need to test and release a new version of iTunes every time.

Remember all those statements that Flash is the most frequent cause of system crashes?
Well, that may be true, but since I use ClickToFlash, by far the program that falls in a quivering heap most often is iTunes.
Like, once every couple days.